So I have these 2 vintages in my cellar:
1981 Taillevent Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
1983 Taillevent Champagne Grand Reserve Blanc de Blancs
Does anyone have any idea who would have made these? It looks like Deutz makes their NV Brut today, but not sure if that applies to these old vintages.
I know that Deutz has had a history with making wines for Taillevent, but I don’t know all the years. From what I can tell, Deutz did vintaged Blanc de Blancs and Rose for Taillevent in at least the second half of the 1980s (and many times since then) and that various producers over time have also done bottlings for them. In most cases, the labels and bottle dress states who makes the wine - sometimes in big letters and other times more discreetly. Do you have images?
We imported some of these through the WineHouse SF in the eighties…I think they would have aged well. I think I remember that they were either Deutz or Phillipponat. It might say on the cork…look for it. And enjoy.
Thanks for the replies!
They’re in storage right now, but I will post images when I next come across them.
Cheers!
Clayton
Fred,
From the Philipponnat ones I have seen, the dress on the bottle was pretty prominent about pointing out the bottle was from Philiopponnat. For the Deutz bottles, it was a smaller print on the front label that declared Deutz.
Photos attached… the 1981 looks to be Renaudin, I suspect the 1983 is too but it’s not clear.
Clayton,
Thanks for the phots. Like most of the Taillevent Champagnes, the labels make it clear and, yes, those are both Renaudin wines. I didn’t realize they were doing vintage wines for Taillevent back then. I had only ever run into some of the NV Taillevent by Renaudin. I’d rather have a Deutz or Philipponnat produced wine, but hopefully these two are good. My problem with Renaudin is that their wines always seem a bit rustic, heavy, and made to taste fairly mature. They can certainly be tasty, but in a somewhat forced way. If you open them, let us know what you think.